Winners of the 2020 IFComp

Linus Åkesson

Housework is only as dull as your imagination. Join Emma, six years old, on a playful adventure of peculiar proportions.

Merciful puzzlefest. Parser or point-and-click, as you please. Web (including mobile) or Z-machine.

Two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Josh Labelle

When you and your companions are approached by a man in a tavern who offers you more gold than you could spend in one lifetime to slay a dragon, you're torn. The money would buy you out from under the boot of the tyrannical queen. You'd never want for anything again. But do you schmucks really stand a chance against a dragon? And what did this dragon do to deserve being slayed, anyway? Your instructions are simple. Travel to the cave. Chop off the dragon's head. Bring it to Akema, the village at the base of the mountains. Meet your patron in a tavern to collect your spoils.

If only you hadn't been too drunk to remember exactly WHICH tavern you were supposed to meet him in. Now, you'll have to journey from tavern to tavern looking for him. An inn full of yearning hearts and true believers. A burlesque house full of cutthroats and intrigue. A dive bar where you're likely to walk out with fewer digits than you walked in with. As you uncover the strange secrets of Akema, you begin to realize you've been lied to, set up. Can you unravel the mystery and get out from under before last call?

Screwball noir fantasy • One hour • Choice-based

This work also won 2nd place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Thomas Mack and Xavid

The memoir of a demonic spy in the Cold War between Heaven and Hell.

Espionage, fantasy, light comedy, puzzle-based • An hour and a half • Parser-based

This work also won 3rd place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

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Pace Smith

"To Russia!" you boldly suggest.

"This riddle has got me obsessed.

We'll search 'til we're blind,

and loot what we find!

Let's go on a...

Adventure • One hour • Choice-based

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Mathbrush

A millionaire guards a fabulous ruby in her private train car. Countless thieves have failed to steal it. But they weren't the Magpie!

Heist • One hour • Parser-based

This work also won 1st place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Mike Russo

Well, isn't this a lark! After solid years of going after old Alky to let you in on that Mysteries wheeze of his, at last tonight's the night. He's dragged you from Athens to Eleusis for the to-do, but no sooner had you clapped eyes on the wine and canapés than he informed you of a spot of work in need of doing.

You've heard of work, you're sure you'll be good at it!

Semi-historical farce • Two hours • Parser-based

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Ryan Veeder

An account of the disastrous sidewalk chalk tournament of August 27, 2011.

An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Abigail Corfman

Prince Blacktree is dead.

All of the other fairy nobles are trying to claim credit.

A whodunit where the suspects are clamoring to be accused.

Fantasy mystery • One hour • Choice-based

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Lance Campbell

The only thing worse than being a village idiot is being an unemployed village idiot.

Maybe it’s time to change careers. Maybe it’s time to be a knight.

Fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

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Scenario World

Cybernetically enhanced Elizabeth Boldan tries to find herself while working part-time at the Crown Diamond, an erotic massage parlor and brothel in the year 2029. On television and in the movies, cybernetics promise enhanced intelligence, strength, or speed. For Elizabeth, it's a cursed hyper-awareness of how everybody feels. Navigate an interaction with one of her regulars, get to know her coworkers, and meet a mysterious stranger.

A prelude to future mysteries.

Science Fiction • One hour • Choice-based

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Carter X Gwertzman

Unravel the secrets of the third dimension and search for treasure in a wholly bizarre setting — a crossover between the worlds of Fallen London and Flatland. Keep your wits about you in this sprawling parser-based game, and remember: There's no such thing as down.

Two-Dimensional • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

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Lei

You are a young doppelganger, fresh out of School of Humanity, finally realizing your life-long dream to own a human-centric business. You offer a unique service: imitation on demand, living through situations the humans would rather pass on. Embarrassing? Shameful? Boring? You can experience all those feelings on behalf of your clients, while they enjoy their day, unbothered, somewhere far away.

Change into others! Learn the secrets of the City of Sand! Avoid foreclosure!

Weird • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Alex Harby

Nero Brashov, vampire and failed businessman, has revenge on his mind. He'll pose as a human, infiltrate his arch-enemy's corporation, and sabotage it from the inside. Just as soon as he's invited in, that is.

Contains swearing from the start, so may not be suitable for playing with children. Download version comes with the Inform 7 source code.

Comedy • One hour • Parser-based

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Paul Michael Winters

Just you and your car, alone on the open road. You haven't seen another car for weeks. You haven't spoken to another person in months. And if you want to stay alive, you'd better keep it that way.

Apocalyptic Horror • An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Arthur DiBianca

A grab bag of puzzles, mostly word puzzles. Collect keywords and save the Sanctum!

Parser-based

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Naomi Norbez (call me Bez, e/he)

Follow user StaircaseHaven14 on a Neopets-esque site called Ruffians as she faces life's challenges, RPs with her long-distance BFF (or more than BFF?) Bee, and encounters familial hardship, from age 8 to 18.

Note: I got a report that the browser version doesn't load some pictures, making it impossible to complete. Please consider downloading the game instead, to avoid issues.

Also, reviews please take note: https://twitter.com/NaomiNorbez/status/1317206992855965698?s=20

Romance, Realistic Fiction, Slice-of-life • One hour • Choice-based

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Jim Aikin

Locked in a tower in a castle by an evil duke — how annoying. And you’re not even a princess! Duke Esteban is demanding an outrageous ransom of your well-born and well-meaning but cash-strapped parents, a sum that they have no hope of paying. He knows that. His real goal is — well, they call it ravishment, but that word is far too refined to describe what’s going to happen to you in a few hours, when the deadline passes and no fat bags of gold have arrived. The only surprising part is that you haven’t been ravished already, only leered at. (Duke Esteban has surely practiced his leer in front of a mirror.)

Puzzle-oriented fantasy. • An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Becci

A short story about food, belonging, and seeking home. Text your friend, call your mum, and search for congee on this rainy night.

Cozy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Gibbo

On the seventh floor of HQ, the professor rushed into the games room as people yelled and slammed doors in the corridor outside. He hugged you to sleep. That is your last memory. You wake to discover that something terrible must have occurred. In the event of an emergency, your mission is to search the rooms, rescue your colleagues, and then meet the professor outside. But things seem different tonight.

Red Radish Robotics is a web-based work of interactive fiction, combining a dystopian sci-fi short story with an escape game.

Dystopian sci-fi • An hour and a half • Choice-based

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Michael Lauenstein

Another run. Another dive into the neon sea.

A Cyberpunk Heist Game.

Parser-based but with a hybrid interface (playable by typing or by links alone). Best played online on this site with the "Play Online" button below, using a desktop browser (or a tablet in wide-screen landscape mode).

Cyberpunk • Two hours

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E.J. Holcomb

On a peaceful multispecies space station, an aging admiral is haunted by strange messages and visions of a long-dead enemy. "A Christmas Carol" meets "Mass Effect"... with bonus evil cat aliens!

Science Fiction • An hour and a half • Choice-based

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AKheon

You are an antique store proprietor trying to make ends meet. Use your wits, manage your resources, play the hand you are dealt.

This game features a story with multiple endings, achievements as well as an unique style of gameplay that is inspired by roguelite and card-based games.

Horror / simulation • One hour • Parser-based

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Daniel Maycock

Your punctuation-obsessed uncle has died, leaving your family his house, but leaving you, a mere kid, with his unfinished business. As you follow the clues left by your uncle, you quickly discover that while there's only one way to finish the job, there are several ways to die.

An atmospheric parser game with puzzles and portals to hidden worlds. (It's also a thinly-veiled attempt to teach comma rules without feeling "educational.")

Experimental, educational • Two hours • Parser-based

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Rob Fitzel

A theme park executive dies on a rollercoaster.

Was it an accident? Was it foul play?

Grab your crime fighting kit and gather your wits

to investigate why all is not happy in Happyland.

Murder mystery • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

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Robb Sherwin & Mike Sousa

There was an aye-aye behind the bar, staring at me horribly. Or maybe its face just froze that way. I was waiting for my client at ten at night in a dusty, dirty town in the middle of nowhere. Clouds out here were apparently one of the thirty million newly unemployed. There was a missing woman and my client was about to hire an amateur private detective with the world's most technologically advanced cellular phone. This was going to be a cinch. Seriously. It'll take me like two searches with it to close this case. Three if mid-investigation I check on my torrents.

Y-You're a player of the 2020 Interactive Fiction competition. I'm Jay. Let's straddle the edge.

Detective • Two hours • Parser-based

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Dark Star

Caught up in a time-travel experiment gone wrong, the actions you perform in the past will ripple forward in time. Can you find your way back without unraveling the universe? A small town stirs in your wake.

Slice-of-life • Two hours • Parser-based

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ruqiyah

Dear Ms. ████████

We are delighted to offer you a position in our architecture department. After your application and interview we are confident you will really sink your teeth into this role.

Your new office will be ready for you to move in next week. You are encouraged to make the space your own.

P.S. I understand you are acquainted with one of our most esteemed professors. Per your request, your employment is yet to be publicly announced. I trust it will make for a heartening reunion.

Moving-in sim • One hour • Parser-based

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Maurizio Colucci (writing as “Mike Stallone”)

Follow the adventures of two six-year-old girls with too much time on their hands as they go on a mission to defeat dangerous monsters, extremely competitive bodybuilders, and hyperinflation. -- Keywords: comedy, point and click, open world, puzzles, Dracula, Frankenstein, evil wizard, evil bodybuilders, pirates, dragon, witch, graphical map, 10 hours long, strange interface, hint system, multilanguage (English / Italian).

Comedy, point and click, open world • Longer than two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Lance Nathan

It's 1999, and your roommate has talked you into hosting a Halloween party. It's pretty much going to be all his friends, but you've invited a few of your own who may or may not make it. Here's hoping for the best.

Half an hour • Choice-based

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Mark Clarke

For untold years you have been trapped, a spirit without a body, incarcerated by an evil mage. Finally your chance has come to free yourself and escape. Run wild in a body-swapping, race against time to escape the tower before sun-up. Can you free the Eidolon in time?

Fantasy • One hour • Choice-based

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Mark Sample

We are haunted by the houses of our childhood. How unfamiliar they are, when we return. Yet you never forget, do you? You never really forget.

A Southern Gothic horror story. Remember, of all the masks we wear, it's the final one that matters.

Horror • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Skarn

Chorus is a non-profit organization with the purpose of improving everyday life in our city. We encourage cooperation between all, regardless of age, gender, mass, volume, morphism, mode of locomotion, venomousness, body chemistry, phasing, plane of origin.

Join us today and meet people whose existence you had never imagined.

Urban fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Zan and Xavid

As cities around the world turn to ash, the Federal Bureau of Druids sends you back in time to the autumnal equinox to stop the Order of the Fiery Doom. Find plants for your mystical cocoon and travel to different seasons. Will you be able to avert the apocalypse?

Cover art by N. Santore (https://twitter.com/gyrium).

Fantasy • An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Peter Eastman

This fantasia on Kipling's "Just So Stories" takes you back to the High and Far-Off Times to learn how all things came to be what they are today.

Warning: Contains bad poetry.

Half an hour • Choice-based

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Bitter Karella

A magician's assistant has two very important duties, to point at things and to look good in a form-fitting evening gown. But when Mugwort the Magician is kidnapped by his devious riddle-obsessed arch-nemesis and imprisoned somewhere on his opulent magician's estate with no way to find him other than a series of obtuse riddles, it's up to consummate magician's assistant Trixie to save the day!

Comedy • One hour • Parser-based

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Joey Acrimonious

You are a young woman about to meet your girlfriend for (what you hope will be) a fun and sexy night on the town. But first, you have an important mission: to shave your chest hair.

Saucy romp • One hour • Parser-based

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Hanon Ondricek

Evil, sealed away for Aeons, has been released.

Fantasy/Comedy RPG • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

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M. Nite Chamberlain

You're a jinni whose only talent is petty magic tricks. And now you're looking for a way home, accompanied by possibly the most infuriating human to have walked this earth, and trying to avoid getting trapped in any more jars.

One hour • Choice-based

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Daniel Gao

You are sent back in time to investigate a 17-year-old mystery. Who murdered Jenny Lee?

Mystery • An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Han-Joo Kim

In a world where magic is real and mind-bending nightmares lie waiting in the least expected places, the Fraternal Order of Ghostfinders, an international society of elite occult investigators, is humanity's strongest line of defense against the unspeakable horrors of the void. When your protege, a novice ghostfinder named Cyra, accidentally becomes embroiled in a hunt for a serial killer, you must use every means at your disposal to catch him before he catches her. A detective mystery game with a strong focus on piecing together clues and leads.

Mystery, Horror • Two hours • Choice-based

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Arno von Borries

At some point, going back would have been inevitable anyway. And why should I not have been allowed a bit of rest? After all, no one could say I hadn't tried to run. But when you're running, you need to stop eventually, or else you risk running into people.

Longer than two hours • Parser-based

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Nell Raban

You're sitting at home, minding your business, when your mom texts you. It's a familiar situation. But when the chat turns nostalgic, how do you reconcile her regrets about how she raised you with your own needs? Do you just indulge her, or do you take this opportunity to forge a deeper relationship with your family and your heritage?

Slice of life • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Jared Jackson

It's a game within a game within a game.

Come see what the cards hold in store for you.

Rogue-lite deck builder • An hour and a half • Choice-based

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Wesley Werner (writing as “Special Agent”)

You are Dr Ego, purveyor of artifacts, seeker of treasure, and adventurous archeologist. You explore the jungles of Papua New Guinea with hopes to find a mysterious artifact - the golden egg of Man-Toomba.

Adventure • Two hours • Parser-based

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Neibucrion

It's the summer of 1920.

Things are going well in Catalonia for the wealthy Vidal family : the Great War just ended that allowed them to greatly improve their profits.

But these are modern times full of freedom and passions... Will the Vidal Clan survive to this new Age?

Historical gay melodrama • One hour • Choice-based

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Pseudavid

Two girls and a simple, if peculiar, love story where not much seems to happen.

The Moon wed Saturn is a short narrative experiment. Computer or tablet is recommended.

Romance • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Tripper McCarthy

People warned me about being a private dick in Arkham, Massachusetts. Sure, I’d heard the stories of monsters, cults, and other bizarre happenings in this old New England town. My take? The world is scary enough without help from the supernatural.

It wouldn’t be until a mother walked through my door looking for her missing son that I realized how wrong I was.

A prequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, live the adventure of detective Jack DuVrey as he investigates a case of mystery and madness.

Will you survive, The Call of Innsmouth?

Horror • Two hours • Choice-based

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Ola Hansson

A chamber play in a board game. Short play-through time, but victory will require plenty of replaying.

You are visiting John Cage, the composer. Use stealth to navigate his apartment as well as his arguments. You’ve heard them all before … Sometimes a man would be wise to shut up!

One hour • Choice-based

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Julian Mortimer Smith

A retired pirate captain cobbles together a ship and crew from the pages of classic works of literature. His goal: revenge!

Pirate • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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n-n

You are starting your IT internship. The details you got from the university are scarce: just the address and the date (today).

Half an hour • Parser-based

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Peter Eastman

You have recently begun taking lessons from a new voice teacher. Under his expert instruction, your opera career is flourishing. If only he would let you see his face.

This work includes music which is an important part of the experience. Be sure you have sound turned on.

Half an hour • Choice-based

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Emery Joyce

Your commute is simple enough. Or at least, it should be. But today, the entire public transportation system seems to have it out for you--and is it just you, or does the geography keep... shifting?

Comedy; Surreal • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Morgan Elrod-Erickson, Skyler Grandel, and Jan Kim

Reginald is your average former soap-sniffer: thirty-two, dumped, and unemployed. You are a voice inside his head. Summon demons, bake cookies, and decide the fate of the Hidden Hills Sanctuary.

Comedy, Puzzle, Multiple Endings • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Jack Sanderson Thwaite

You have many faces. Your form is multiple. You are the cards. Created many years ago, infused with dark magic, you have seen many things. What secrets do you contain? What visions have you conjured up? How will you nudge the hands of fate?

Arcane fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

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The Marino Family

Through a glass in the floor of the Tangerine House, Lin has marveled at the perfect miniature world of The Land Down Under. But when her two foster siblings go missing, Lin must pursue them into this world only to learn the price of perfection.

Fantasy, young adult/children • One hour • Choice-based

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Gevelle Formicore

Chirlu the Immortal has menaced the Land of Teresten for too long! Locked inside the sorcerer's atelier, inside the Ilfane, is the source of Chirlu's power: The Knot, where all mana connects. Get ready, young adventurer -- learning the magic to crack the Ilfane won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Ann Hugo

Your first day on the job wasn't going to be pleasant. Such was inevitable. It's a big change. And, you are autistic.

But this was a different story, far worse than unpleasant.

Drama • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Tarquin Segundo

The scientist Chirlu created The Knot to be a source of peace and prosperity for the galaxy. But a routine training mission turned into terror when the bloodthirsty Ilfane attacked. Get ready, young space cadet -- surviving the Ilfane invasion won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Choice-based

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B F Lindsay

"A frickin' important episode in my life." -- Tom Trundle, 17

Teen adventure/romance • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

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Tom Lento, Chandler Groover

Something fishy is happening in the Section B-2 Temple.

Piscespunk • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Willershin Rill

Millennia ago, the Autarch Ilfane used a magical artifact called The Knot to bring the Teresten people to an era of prosperity. Now, the Nazi archaeologist Doktor Chirlu seeks its power. Get ready, Professor Adventure -- solving the riddles of the Tomb of Ilfane won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Storysinger Presents

When a hero & a villain start planning their battles over coffee, they come to trust each other more than they ever expected.

Superhero, Comedy, • An hour and a half

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Arabella Collins, Grey Havens

You don't know where you are, or how you got here, but you do know you've been kidnapped.

Trapped in a cage, running out of options. What will you do?

Thriller/Horror • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

The TAV Institute

Release Note: We've been having some reports of players finding that the game stops, showing a blank screen, partway through the game. The most likely cause of this is having split the hosting between ifcomp.org and xlr8.zone. That should be fixed now, but if you think your internet might be spotty, or you want to be 100% sure you don't encounter any technical errors, please feel free to download a full local copy from https://xlr8.zone/download.zip.

Thanks, Venus Wormwood

--------

A multimedia project about the end of everything.

This is not a true story. Everything in it happened, and will. Any resemblance to actual events, or actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This is your last puzzle. This is your final warning. This game could be your life, and it might. It certainly may shatter you, for longer even than it did me, and into even more fragments.

Here is the church.

Here is the steeple.

Open all the doors.

Transform all the people.

Monomythic hypertextual gesamtkunstwerk • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Neil Aitken

You wake up in the depths of a dark cave system and must find your way out. Contend with strange creatures. Lost treasures. Forgotten runes. Ancient magic. Faltering light sources. Fear. Loneliness. Existential angst. The last bit of hope. The nagging sense that nothing ever stays the same.

Who are you really in the dark?

15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

No Sell Out Productions

The War of Ten Dogs is over. Jueyuan and his ten mongrel generals have been defeated. The veterans have returned home. Many return to the city of Mythicus at the heart of the World Tree. Others return to the Windless Prairie, or the southern border towns. They return to piece together what's left of their war-scarred lives, many wondering with every breath why they survived and their comrades didn't? You begin as Silver Bear. He has arrived at the border of the Windless Prairie, guided there by the spirit of his comrade, Snapping Turtle. Snapping Turtle was killed in action in the war while saving Silver Bear's life; now the bear has come to the prairie to repay the life debt. But Silver Bear soon discovers there is far more at stake than the debt he owes. Something has sickened the prairie, imprisoning the wind. Can Silver Bear and a cast of others free the wind? Will Silver Bear finally come to terms with his survivor's guilt and the death of Snapping Turtle? Only you can decide their fate...

Produced by No Sell Out Productions. Written by Southwest Underground Writing Krew: a collaboration of Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans scattered to the four winds across the Southwest United States who write about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Southwestern culture.

Crime-noir, drama, southwestern, magic realism • One hour • Choice-based

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James Heaton

In the early 1990's, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna published his book "Food of the Gods" in which he presented a theory explaining the cognitive leap forward observed in early homo-sapiens. His theory is often referred to as the Stoned Ape Hypothesis.

Prehistoric Fiction • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Andrea M. Pawley

The Forever Cat stalks through this universe, collapsing it when the Others come close or shiny objects are too far apart. Will you end the Forever Cat's destructive cycle and help this universe's quanta join the multiverse?

Science Fiction • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Ed

All you remember is that you're cursed. Cursed to spend every night writhing in pain. You've come here, to this desolate farmland, to find a cure. But now that you're here, you might find more than you wanted.

Suspense/Horror • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Earth Traveler

You barely escaped your pursuers as you ran from the mansion. Now you must survive a vast, trackless desert with no food or water, and escape the grasp of a demonic cult...

Written as a sequel to "Two braids girl", which was not written by me.

Horror • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Y Ceffyl Gwyn

The revolution begins with you.

(cover art image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech from https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/viewing-the-red-planet - modified by the author)

Science fiction • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Rob

"Why are you never here for me?" The usual obsessive question that never leaves my mind. I thought that our "part-time" story before your archeology degreee was the embryonic state of something more important, but your passion for the past has completely absorbed you. I always thought that a relationship was made of sharing life but,obviously, it's not like that for you (i can see you even now shaking your head and telling me to grow). Even having received the keys of you apartment in Milan did not make me less "ancillary" to your life. Damn keys! If only they could open your mind too. I could understrand if our relationship really interests you. I feel that even today our meeting will not take place. You're late...As usual!

ps: A jump into the past. An old-fashioned adventure (80's 90's.) to the present day.

Horror • Parser-based

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Ralfe Rich (writing as “Cristmo Ibarra”)

It starts with you sitting down, eyes glued to your laptop as the credits roll on the penultimate episode of your favorite series. It's 2:00 AM on a weekday, and your bed's looking pretty good, but it's the season finale! It's the type of thing that'll keep you up at night!

Now, you are on a throne.

[Note: This game has a color mode that changes the text and background color during a playthrough; you can enable or disable it at the start of the game. There might be some interpreters that might not handle them well, so disabling them will put the game on the standard black on white.]

Surreal / Slice of life • An hour and a half

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Joseph Pentangelo

A breath born of boredom rises in the wintry sky. Hooves and bells approach. The school bus is late.

Flash fiction • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Andrew Schultz

Save OkayCo from the Flame-Lame Fey and Ed Spray-Spread!

With thanks to my imaginary friends Amos and Abel Fay.

Wordplay, experimental • An hour and a half • Parser-based

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Damon L. Wakes

It has been 100 years since the vile legions of Necroth were defeated. 100 years of years of peace and harmony. But a shadow grows in the frozen north, and dark forces assemble in the wilds and on the roads. Has the tyrant once again risen up to blight the land with his crimes?

In this time of wind and chaos, only one thing is certain: justice must be done.

Thanks to Kris Dikeman for playtesting.

Fantasy, comedy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Tristan Jacobs

Built upon the intention of combining a choose-your-own-adventure game with a beat-em up, (s)wordsmyth is an unconventional, samurai-inspired, revenge story that includes sentient swords and yokai warriors. [Cover art by Elisa Moriconi & Anand Ramcheron]

Fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Matthew Warner

Your arch enemy has trapped you in the underground tomb of the Pharaoh Haputet. To escape, you must solve a puzzle before you run out of matches to reignite your torch. Watch out for snakes, mummies, and Egyptian curses!

Horror adventure puzzle • Two hours • Parser-based

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Joseph Pentangelo

A hole-based economy and a venison-based diet. You and your dog. And a turnip.

Fantasy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Jared W Cooper

These are all the weekends that will have passed when you read this.

Speculative • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Jason Barrett

The town of Arkhill has been under a mysterious Darkness and strange beasts. You have been hired to dispense of the beasts and investigate the cause of the Darkness. With the help of the remaining townfolk and your wizard aid, will you be able to lift the Darkness and save the town? Inspired by Fighting Fantasy and similar Gamebooks

Fantasy RPG • Choice-based

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Seth Paxton and Rachel Aubertin

Ever since cloning dinosaurs became the cheap, cool way to build a theme park there have been lots of them cropping up. Luckily, this one still had a position open for your summer job! Little Dino Park is a place of fun for the whole family, built with safety in mind. Finally, a summer job that you can really sink your teeth into!

Adventure • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Kenneth Pedersen (writing as “Ilmur Eggert”)

The Royal Society, Gresham College, London, England, 4th of April 1673:

Isaac receives a mysterious letter...

.

COVER ART:

"Sir Isaac Newton" by John Faber Jr after John Michael Rysbrack. Mezzotint, (circa 1733)

NPG D3726 ( https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/use-this-image.php?mkey=mw37963 )

Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ )

Historical fantasy • Half an hour • Parser-based

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Finn Rosenløv

Little did you know that when you went to bed that night, and your mom had kissed you good night and left you room, that you would embark on an adventure beyond your wildest dreams. An unexpected visit of a wizard sets things in motion, a kingdom in peril, an evil queen to be defeated, puzzles to be solved and YOU are the only hope.

Fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

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Andrew Brown

A strange and hopefully disturbing little story... (if you want to hear the musical score, unzip to the same folder and it should play)

Horror oppresive • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Larry Horsfield

The intrepid Duke has returned to Castle Coris, where he thwarted the Xixon sorcerer Zalazar's plan to destroy the world with a horde of demons from Hell (See THE SPECTRE OF CASTLE CORIS). The castle has been undergoing renovation by Baron Coris's heir, Thorion, who has found a mysterious tunnel leading from the cavern where Alaric fought the sorcerer and rescued the would-be sacrifice, Megan. A riding accident has prevented the Baron from investigating where the tunnel leads, so he invites Duke Alaric to explore the tunnel.

What mysteries await Alaric as he enters the tunnel? Find out in RETURN TO CASTLE CORIS!

Fantasy • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

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Tom Charles Bair III

INFINITUBE: where the imagination stretches as far as limitations can reach

Were you ever told you can be anything? Well, with INFINITUBE, you can be just that!

Maximalist • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

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Andrew Geng

Sometimes you get an impulse you know you'd regret--especially in the face of an arbitrary task of questionable value. So when Grandmother asks you to bring her a cabbage, a sheep, and a stinky bear, what could possibly go wrong?

Humor • Half an hour • Parser-based

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N/A

Dadi meanders gently through the gnarls of her brain to pick apart threads of memory from story. Replay multiple times for multiple endings...or the true beginnings, after all?

Nostalgia, fantasy, story, aging, whimsical • Half an hour • Choice-based

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JimJams Games

Well, that must have been one hell of a party, at least that's what your body is telling you. Your memories of events are a little hazy at best, and exactly where you are and how you got here is a mystery. Still, you've got a road cone on your head, so it can't have been all bad.

Play Tangled Tales as either Cinderella or Prince Charming as you attempt to find your way back to the family castle in time for your friend's wedding, encountering all manner of rude, annoying and often unhelpful fairy tale folk, intent it seems, on hindering you.

Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Humour. • One hour • Parser-based

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Serhii Mozhaiskyi

You are trying to escape with a mysterious briefcase, but your options are limited.​ Can you survive the chase?

Mobile friendly. No sound effects. Keep your eyes on the road.

Experimental • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Andreas Hagelin

As this dark adventure begins you find yourself bereft of both clothes and food in a cold prison cell. Will you solve the mysteries, slay the monsters and see the light of another day?

Puzzle RPG • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

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Samuel Thomson

Saint-Simon’s Saw synthesizes different methods of splitting and reforming a narrated situation. It is named after the 18th Century social reformer, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, a minor French aristocrat who experienced both extreme success and colossal failure, and supported the American and French revolutions of the 18th Century. This game is intended as an aid for mediation, and for the envisaging of radical futures - a bit like a tarot deck.

Ambient Card Game • 15 minutes or less

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Jason Olson

Mr. Harrison was a quiet old man who lived in the house at the end of the block. No one really knew him, but everyone said he was rich; anyone who lived like as much like a hermit as he did *had* to be a millionaire. After lunch one day when you overheard your parents talking about how the old man had died with no family and how the city was coming to take the house and everything inside you decided on the spot that they wouldn't take *everything*...if there was any cash in there it was coming home with *you*.

Slice of life • One hour • Parser-based

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CynthiaP

You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice

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Oscar

When bedtime comes, you never know what will happen in the course of the next few hours. Dreams can turn into nightmares, you may not distinguish dreams from reality ...Sounds can fool us.

Do not expect a bed of roses, the old players make us suffer and despair ... But the end exists It would be appreciated to play with sound. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR BATTLES...

Adventure, experimental • Half an hour • Choice-based

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B.J. Best

It began when my mother's goldfish died on the dining-room table. I was about to tell her how I lived; my girlfriend and I were about to see the Wauwatosa Thunderdivers. We were dancing on the beach; we were singing songs no one knew they had.

An experimental story about a lifelong romantic relationship.

Surreal • Half an hour • Choice-based

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Nick Montfort

Victorious at last, you now need to get yourself and your fleet back home. Decide as if it all depends on you, trust as if it all depends on the gods, and you will have an amazing quest...

15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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CynthiaP (writing as “Ima”)

Although this is an interactive interface, your choices do NOT matter. They really do not. Before you quit, I want you to understand why. I am a believer of absurdity, that our actions in the end have no meaninging in the interacting force between humans and universe. Choices lead you to different paths, but in the end, it's to a place where we share the common ground. But hey, life is about enjoying the journey, right? I hope you enjoy the choices being made along the way.

15 minutes or less

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Victoria

The first thought is always the same: ‘coffee’. The warm glow of the kettle fills the van as it comes to life at an enviable pace. Suddenly, with a snap, the lights shut off, the kettle dies with dignity, you bang your head on the counter. You forgot to check the solar systems battery charge again...

A snap of that sunrise should look inspiring enough to pay for the repairs, you hope.

How long will you survive #VanLife?

Educational • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

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Ima

Every system, whether the economy or the ecosystem, has an equilibrium. When we keep extracting the resources, exploiting human moral bottom-lines, consuming carelessly, and ignoring small but essential part of the system chain, the system sends a feedback loop to break in most unexpected ways. The equilibrium has a balance based on the principle of equal-ibium.

A take on social critique • Choice-based

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Fight Forever (writing as “Pako”)

Fighting is all that matters now.

Longer than two hours

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CrunchMasterGowon

Compete against other contestants to become star popstar idol!

Simulation, Romance. • An hour and a half • Choice-based

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